Overview
Purpose. Performance. People. Joining CPP Investments means joining one of the world’s most admired and respected institutional investors to deliver strong, sustainable returns for generations of Canadians. With a long-term horizon and global reach, CPP Investments deploys capital at scale across public and private markets. We pursue opportunities, build enduring partnerships, and create meaningful work with tangible impact.
Role Summary: The Director, Legal, engages directly with senior leadership and business units to partner and provide strategic advice enabling CPP Investments to navigate, understand, and comply with legal and regulatory requirements consistent with our Guiding Principles and investment mandate.
Team Description
The successful candidate will report to a Managing Director in Investment Legal and will be a member of the global Investment Legal team. They will work with other senior lawyers in CPP Investments’ international offices, with investment teams, and with other partners across the organization. The position may periodically involve travel. The ideal candidate is a commercially minded transactional lawyer with broad international private markets experience and strong legal judgment. They are likely to come from a generalist M&A or private equity background, but could also have focused on credit, infrastructure, real assets, or investment funds. They must be intellectually flexible, able to reason across unfamiliar structures from first principles, operate independently, advise senior stakeholders, manage external counsel, and make practical recommendations when the answer is not obvious and facts are evolving.
Accountabilities & Qualifications
Accountabilities
- Lead and provide senior-level legal advice on transactions and asset management matters, including structuring, negotiation strategy, review of investment recommendations, governance considerations, regulatory issues, risk allocation, within the scope of CPP Investments’ legal services model.
- Work with CPP Investments’ strategies in Europe across Real Assets, Private Equity, and Credit Investments, with Real Assets expected to represent the majority of the role.
- Apply legal and commercial judgment across complex private markets transactions, including consortium and co-investment arrangements and fund/sponsor dynamics; understand how equity, debt, downside protection, control rights, security, enforcement, governance, regulatory and exit considerations interact across direct and fund investments.
- Engage with external counsel as a constructive peer on deal-specific and institutional-level issues.
- Provide advice and support on investment-related projects with Group- or Department-level impacts.
- Anticipate, identify, and assist in managing legal risks related to new investment strategies and activities, and new or changed laws or regulations affecting CPP Investments’ strategies.
- Contribute to Legal Department and CPP Investments-wide initiatives, including policies, procedures, systems, training, and cross-functional projects relevant to investment activities.
Qualifications
- Qualified to practice law in England and Wales, or an equivalent common law jurisdiction.
- 7+ years of post-qualification legal experience at a major international law firm or in-house corporate or financial investor legal department, focused on transactional work.
- Significant international transactional experience across complex private markets transactions and investment structures.
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively across M&A, funds, credit, real assets, governance, asset management, and regulatory considerations.
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills, including ability to work cooperatively with many stakeholders.
- Excellent legal judgment in ambiguous or novel situations; ability to distinguish material from immaterial issues, make practical recommendations with incomplete information, and know when to decide, consult, or escalate.
- Strong organizational skills: flexible, adaptable, and able to operate in ambiguity, under time pressure, and across multiple projects.
- Professional conduct reflecting the quality of work, demeanor, ethical values, and high standards of CPP Investments.
What We Offer and Additional Context
You will be motivated to contribute to something larger, approach complex challenges with rigor, and hold yourself to high standards in a collaborative, performance-driven environment. We provide colleagues with cutting-edge AI tools, dedicated learning time, and practical support to help them deliver with greater impact.
Inclusion & Accessibility
CPP Investments is committed to equitable access to employment and building a workforce that reflects diverse talent and perspectives. If you require accommodation at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.
Safety and Compliance
Attention: Protect Yourself from Fraud. CPP Investments is committed to a secure and transparent recruitment process. We will never ask candidates for payment or financial information at any stage of hiring. All legitimate opportunities are posted on our careers page, and communications will come from our applicant tracking system, Workday. CPP Investments may use AI tools to help screen and assess applicants, but these tools support, and do not replace, human decision-making.
About Us
Why Work With Us: For 25 years, we’ve proudly invested the Canada Pension Plan Fund, helping to secure retirement for more than 22 million Canadians. We invest for the long term — and that includes our people. Our Guiding Principles are Integrity, Partnership, and High Performance. Our impact: we invest globally across public and private markets, focusing on long-term value creation and responsible investing, with offices in major financial centres around the world.
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